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We are so excited to announce our musical performers for the August DDM! Danny Rush and the Designated Drivers and Fox and the Bird are both local bands who have been critically acclaimed by the Dallas Observer and other publications. We couldn’t be more thrilled to have such cool summer tunes headed towards the Design District Market. Check out some of their music:

We love our vendors! So we will be featuring them on our blog leading up to the event! Our first featured vendor is Out of Our Mind. Check out their hilarious and unique handmade aprons, potholders, and pillowcases here!

I mean really, a potholder with a sexy cowboy on it is sure to be even hotter than the sizzling pots you’re cooking with! Come check them out at the Market!

This summer’s design district market will be at Community Beer Co on Saturday August 29th, from 2-7 pm.

A free public event, the Design District Market exists to feature Dallas’ local artists, fashion and jewelry designers, vintage shops and businesses as well as to bring together a vibrant community of Design District neighbors, local businesses and Dallas locals. The event will feature an indoor and outdoor market with an eclectic collection of unique goods, tasty gourmet food trucks, and beer sold by Community Beer Co. Guests can also chill out in the sun with some summer tunes and cool down in our “Dumpster Pool!”

Two years ago, living in my parents house for the first time in a decade, I quickly realized that running one market is certainly not enough to sustain myself and my lifestyle in Dallas. The Brooklyn Flea guys can charge $100 a booth and hold their market every weekend, but that’s New York City, and I knew that getting people to Deep Ellum would be a challenge, especially in the beginning.

What’s interesting about this project is that it’s remarkably similar to starting the Deep Ellum Market two years ago. Telling people about DEOM at that time, I encountered a lot of skepticism from vendors, special event producers, and people in the neighborhood. A few months removed from our 2 Year Anniversary, I like to think we’ve proved our critics wrong.

Now, telling people about the Design District Market on October 4 produces the same blank stares and quizzical looks when DEOM was still very young. Vendors are skeptical that people will come to this area of Dallas. There are neighborhood factions with little history of working together. Even fellow urbanists question the viability of the Design District as a pedestrian friendly environment.

I see the Design District as an up and coming neighborhood. According to information I’ve received from our partners on this project, Jim Lake Companies, the Design District now boasts almost 1,800 residents (up from 43 in the year 2000) and 1,026 businesses (80% related to decor/furniture/interior design). There are 11 restaurants, a theater, a museum, a brewery, 22 art galleries, Trammel Crow Park, and the recently approved Trinity Strand Trail.

Like Deep Ellum, the Design District’s infilling of empty space has the potential to be something great in the City of Dallas. The challenge, again, is to show that there is another neighborhood in the Central Dallas area that exhibits signs of real, organic growth.